Nantes motorists will be relieved to learn this. The Low Emission Zone (ZFE), which consists of prohibiting road access to certain categories of polluting vehicles to improve air quality, currently concerns five French cities (Paris, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Rouen and Strasbourg). For 37 other French urban areas with more than 150,000 inhabitants, in which air pollution is considered less significant, the government has relaxed the system, giving them the possibility of imposing only slight traffic restrictions for an update. in place from 2025. This is precisely the choice that Nantes Métropole made and which will be submitted this Thursday to the vote of the elected representatives of the metropolitan council on the occasion of the presentation of the Metropolitan Air Quality Action Plan for Metropolitan Health (PAQAM).
Concretely, from January 1, 2025, all vehicles must have a Crit’Air sticker displaying their pollution level (from 1 to 5) to continue traveling in the Nantes metropolis. This sticker can be purchased online at current price of 3.72 euros. Failure to have one will result in the driver being fined.
The ban will affect 1% of the car fleet
Only so-called “unclassified” vehicles according to the Crit’Air classification, that is to say gasoline or diesel vehicles registered before 1997, will be subject to travel restrictions: they will be prohibited from entering the Nantes ring road at peak hours (7 a.m.-9 a.m./4 p.m.-7 p.m.) Monday to Friday. Access to certain park-and-ride areas located inside the peripheral ring will remain authorized. This ban would affect around 4,000 vehicles, or 1% of the vehicle fleet, estimates Nantes Métropole.
“It will be a non-coercive ZFE,” confirms Tristan Riom (EELV), vice-president of Nantes Métropole. Studies have shown that the ZFE would ultimately have had little impact on improving air quality in our metropolis. We have other tools to act in this direction. »